OAKLAND / Bashed patron's appeal for damages denied

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, November 1, 2006

A customer of an Oakland drugstore who was pummeled by a pharmacist during an argument over a prescription is not entitled to more than the $15,000 a judge awarded him, a state appeals court said Tuesday.

The customer, Anthony Rideau of Oakland, said he should have been awarded punitive damages in addition to the compensation granted by the judge for his injuries. But the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco upheld the judge's decision that a financial penalty was not needed because the pharmacist's encounter with the legal system should be enough to discourage future assaults.

Rideau, whom his lawyer described as being in his mid-50s, went to Leo's Day and Night Pharmacy on Broadway in downtown Oakland in June 2003 to fill a prescription for treating a degenerative joint disease.

The pharmacist, Roger A. Taylor, told him the prescription looked as if it had been altered and he would have to phone the doctor. While they were waiting, Rideau asked for his prescription back so he could fill it elsewhere, and Taylor refused, the court said.

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The two men disagreed about what happened next. Taylor testified that Rideau threatened him, then came behind the counter and put his hands on him, starting a scuffle that ended when a co-worker pulled Taylor away.

Rideau said Taylor ran at him from behind the counter and punched him in the face and head for 10 minutes while he tried to cover up.

The court said two independent witnesses backed Rideau's account, testifying that they had seen the pharmacist come from behind the counter and slug Rideau repeatedly before being pulled away.

Judge Frank Roesch, who presided over the nonjury trial in Alameda County Superior Court, said he believed the independent witnesses and concluded that Taylor had attacked Rideau with little or no provocation.

Taylor and the drugstore, which also was found responsible for Rideau's injuries, did not appeal the $15,000 damages award. But Rideau appealed, seeking additional compensation for intentional infliction of emotional distress as well as punitive damages. The appeals court turned him down in a 3-0 ruling.

Rideau's lawyer, Berehanu Challa, called the ruling "an utter betrayal of justice" and said he may appeal further. He said that neither the police, who came to the scene, nor state pharmacy regulators ever took any action against Taylor, now a pharmacist at another store.